Pursuing it with eager feet / Until it joins some larger way

The Ten Commandments of the Late Mr. Hitchens

It has been said, “Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right, whereas morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told.” As an acquaintance of the Schatz family this truth is hugely important to me. Christopher Hitchens produced the following for Vanity Fair:

Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or color.

Do not ever use people as private property.

Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations.

Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child.

Do not condemn people for their inborn nature.

Be aware that you too are an animal and dependent on the web of nature, and think and act accordingly.

Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife.

Turn off that fucking cell phone—you have no idea how unimportant your call is to us.

Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions.

Be willing to renounce any god or any religion if any holy commandments should contradict any of the above. In short: Do not swallow your moral code in tablet form.